Plan to knock rabies out in Thailand with an army of 8,600 ‘livestock volunteers’ across the kingdom

[webfact]

Minister of Agriculture Chalermchai Sri-on, whose ministry, on Monday, unveiled a three-year plan to wipe out rabies in Thailand through an ongoing vaccination programme.

 

by James Morris and Son Nguyen

Deadly disease reared up in 2018 due to a shortage of vaccines from 2016 and an explosion of the disease among the country’s population of wild dogs. The latest plan focuses on the vaccination of animals reaching into every locality of the kingdom with the help of sub-district volunteers.

Thailand is setting out a short three-year programme to eliminate rabies through the appointment of up to 8,600 ‘Livestock Volunteers’ across each of the kingdom’s subdistricts to ensure that all dogs and cats, whether in the streets or owned as pets, are fully vaccinated against rabies which killed 5 people in 2021 and nearly four times that figure in 2018.

 

Thailand’s Minister of Agriculture has launched a new initiative to eliminate rabies in the kingdom by 2025.

 

The new plan is based on reaching into local areas with a new army of ‘livestock volunteers’ to vaccinate dogs and cats nationally while also creating more awareness of rabies from which there is a vaccine available to all people in Thailand.

 

Full story: https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/05/volunteer-plan-to-clear-rabies-from-thailand/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Examiner 2022-12-06

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

Monthly car subscription with first-class insurance, 24x7 assistance and more in one price - click here to find out more!

[jacknorman]

start with wiping out straydogs, counsils around Thailand can go around in villages and register dogs AFTER cleanup, if dog not registered or owner not want to say it is the owner take it away, give fines 10.000-30.000 for breaking any rules like keep your dog in your property etc

[spidermike007]

Though this plan is a step in the right direction, however the flaw within it, is the fact that when bitten, you don't know if the dog has been vaccinated, or not. So, you must get treated at a hospital, anyway. And the cost of treatment is up to 20,000 baht for a series of rabies shots. And that assumes it was a light bite and no other injuries occurred. As opposed to a small child being maimed for life. Many of these soi dogs are insane and true desperado. So, we should prioritize the lives of mangy, miserable soi dogs over the well being of the human population?

 

The real solution is massive, nationwide culling. These are mangy creatures, leading desperate lives. Show some nerve and compassion and take them out of the misery. Clean up the streets! 

[Bim Smith]

A few years ago the government set up a program called "set zero" and was primarily aimed at dogs.

When local government officials were caught poisoning the dogs instead of vaccinating them their was a public outcry and it was stopped. This came about by one man dying of the disease that he got from a cat. Then we had the government minister caught selling fake rabies vaccines. I am all for a vaccination program and a spay and neuter program but if this is another one disguised as killing dogs I will do everything to expose it. We have dedicated our lives here to help the dogs and cats with over 3 hundred helped and building our own shelter using our own money. In a Buddhist country I expect nothing less than a compassionate solution to this. The problem here was created entirely by humans taking no responsibility for the dogs and cats in their care. 

[Bim Smith]

1 hour ago, jacknorman said:

start with wiping out straydogs, counsils around Thailand can go around in villages and register dogs AFTER cleanup, if dog not registered or owner not want to say it is the owner take it away, give fines 10.000-30.000 for breaking any rules like keep your dog in your property etc

Which will result in more dogs being dumped. Education is the key and in a country like Thailand unfortunately it will evolutionary not a revolution. That will take many years. 

[Bim Smith]

13 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Though this plan is a step in the right direction, however the flaw within it, is the fact that when bitten, you don't know if the dog has been vaccinated, or not. So, you must get treated at a hospital, anyway. And the cost of treatment is up to 20,000 baht for a series of rabies shots. And that assumes it was a light bite and no other injuries occurred. Many of these soi dogs are insane and true desperados.

 

The real solution is massive, nationwide culling. These are mangy creatures, leading desperate lives. Show some nerve and compassion and take them out of the misery. Clean up the streets! 

And you are part of the problem with that stupid comment big boy. I love these keyboard warriors. Kill a dog in front of your children and see how long you last before being kicked out 

[Orinoco]

To many stray dogs, cats etc. for this to be 100% effective.

Need to cull all the strays first.

Much safer for people, when they are gone.

And fine the people who feed them as well.

[edogthong]

26 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

The real solution is massive, nationwide culling. These are mangy creatures, leading desperate lives. Show some nerve and compassion and take them out of the misery. Clean up the streets!

This is exactly how the elite look at the rest of humanity. 

[RichardColeman]

28 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

The real solution is massive, nationwide culling.

Imagine the soar in 711 sales from people fearing to step over the wild dog relaxing in the air con !

[thailand49]

Another rerun suggestion that is already dead as soon as it was mentioned. 

[jacko45k]

31 minutes ago, Bim Smith said:

And you are part of the problem with that stupid comment big boy. I love these keyboard warriors. Kill a dog in front of your children and see how long you last before being kicked out 

It is all very well you making such a comment, but you do not actually say what point he made is stupid or incendiary? I see little choice other than undergoing rabies shots if bitten by a soi dog here..... 

If there were no soi dogs, only owned ones, who have been taken to the vets for their shots, Thailand's sois would be safer. 

[Brayka]

Promises promises… volunteers are doing so much already with no help from the government at all! Thai people in general are not nice to animals (there are exceptions). Even our neighbours don’t vaccinate their cats or dogs because they are not interested, or lack of money, but hey they have 13 cats and they love kittens. Till they are adults and being trow out wandering the streets. As long as the government doesn’t oblige people to register their dogs (cats?) it’s to no avail. Because when someone gets bitten..the answer is always…not my dog!! In one month our volunteers sterilised 30 dogs and cats and vaccinated them…..a street with no end….the same as the government 3 years plan….

[Tarteso]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The new plan is based on reaching into local areas with a new army of ‘livestock volunteers’

Good plan: work for free so that the government obtains its medals and incidentally… saves money.

[Orinoco]

55 minutes ago, Bim Smith said:

And you are part of the problem with that stupid comment big boy. I love these keyboard warriors. Kill a dog in front of your children and see how long you last before being kicked out 

Do you Kill the Chicken, Pig or cow in front of your kids before you eat it. ? 

[VinnieK]

To ppl who support culling.

There's no way the authorities will go around killing strays

Not gonna happen.

Forcefully vaccinating strays is not easy...practically speaking.

Educating pet owners will take many decades..

Only thing feasible is going around in each home and vaxxing pets, if they are unvaxxed and if the owners concent ????

..and whatever strays they can coax and jab.

The whole issue is a can of worms.

[mikebell]

I love a dog thread; it brings out the tree-huggers and besotted dog owners who hold themselves up for ridicule. 

Thailand is 60 years behind civilised countries in this respect. Not a week goes by without a story of accidents caused by strays; humans disfigured by bites; all the fuss about hygiene whilst tonnes of dog-dirt/urine are distributed in every soi in the country; rubbish strewn by scavenging strays. 

The do-gooders cannot see that allowing sick animals to continue in their painful existence is cruelty not kindness.  The solution is obvious to anyone with an IQ of over 80 - a cull of all strays.

[kamahele]

Great to hear. I would also suggest a free sterilization program for soi dogs and cats and also free to those that cannot afford to have their pets fixed.

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

So, you must get treated at a hospital, anyway. And the cost of treatment is up to 20,000 baht for a series of rabies shots.

And if you go to a local government hospital or clinic it costs next to nothing. I know. The only time in my 26 years here that I've seen a Thai take responsibility for anything was when his dog raced out to the road and bit me as I passed. He took me to a clinic and paid for the treatment. Another time, a dog bit me in my own garden as I protected my dog from an attack. Went to the local hospital and the treatment cost 350.

[Tengtai]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Though this plan is a step in the right direction, however the flaw within it, is the fact that when bitten, you don't know if the dog has been vaccinated, or not. So, you must get treated at a hospital, anyway. And the cost of treatment is up to 20,000 baht for a series of rabies shots. And that assumes it was a light bite and no other injuries occurred. As opposed to a small child being maimed for life. Many of these soi dogs are insane and true desperado. So, we should prioritize the lives of mangy, miserable soi dogs over the well being of the human population?

 

The real solution is massive, nationwide culling. These are mangy creatures, leading desperate lives. Show some nerve and compassion and take them out of the misery. Clean up the streets! 

Agree 100%

[Derek B]

It is not just dogs & cats spreading rabies. Remove all the stray dogs & cats and rabies will still exist IMO.

The vaccines exist so use them before they expire.

[sandyf]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

The real solution is massive, nationwide culling. These are mangy creatures, leading desperate lives. Show some nerve and compassion and take them out of the misery. Clean up the streets! 

Years ago there was culling, until do gooders mainly from the UK put a stop to it.

With the Thai government now under scrutiny from the international press it will slow and steady measures.

[Derek B]

29 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

And if you go to a local government hospital or clinic it costs next to nothing. I know. The only time in my 26 years here that I've seen a Thai take responsibility for anything was when his dog raced out to the road and bit me as I passed. He took me to a clinic and paid for the treatment. Another time, a dog bit me in my own garden as I protected my dog from an attack. Went to the local hospital and the treatment cost 350.

If you run over a soi dog someone will run out & claim ownership unless of course there is damage to the vehicle or motorcycle. The dog population is too great and needs to be reduced - hard to see how though in Thailand.

[sandyf]

2 hours ago, Bim Smith said:

A few years ago the government set up a program called "set zero" and was primarily aimed at dogs.

When local government officials were caught poisoning the dogs instead of vaccinating them their was a public outcry and it was stopped. This came about by one man dying of the disease that he got from a cat. Then we had the government minister caught selling fake rabies vaccines. I am all for a vaccination program and a spay and neuter program but if this is another one disguised as killing dogs I will do everything to expose it. We have dedicated our lives here to help the dogs and cats with over 3 hundred helped and building our own shelter using our own money. In a Buddhist country I expect nothing less than a compassionate solution to this. The problem here was created entirely by humans taking no responsibility for the dogs and cats in their care. 

What many are not aware is that the government did have a free vaccination scheme running pre pandemic, shame it had to come to an end with the pandemic, about 3 years lost. They visited our house a few times and vaccinated all the animals. My wife and her sister also run a voluntary shelter for cats, been going about 8 years now and average about 60 at any one time and usually have 8 to 10 dogs. Just taken in 2 young dogs as the owner was going to put them down as they had started chasing his chickens. As you say all about responsibility, the young dogs do not chase our cats or chickens.

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, Orinoco said:

Do you Kill the Chicken, Pig or cow in front of your kids before you eat it. ? 

Great point. People get so sensitive about soi dogs, yet they do not hesitate to encourage the killing of pigs, cows and other animals for their own enjoyment and consumption. Isn't there a bit of hypocrisy there? If you eat animals, you are responsible for their slaughter. 

 

At least one can make an argument that the animals they eat serve a function. That argument cannot be made about the mangy, diseased, pestilent, sad, forlorn, abandoned soi dogs. They lead lives of desperation. 

 

If you love them show some commitment and adopt a few. Otherwise, let's get rid of them. 

[spidermike007]

Rabies is an epidemic here. They shut down the economy for covid. They don't shut down the highways due to traffic deaths, and they don't do anything about the soi dog tragedy and dangers.

 

Already in 2018, there have been nearly 500 rabies cases reported, which is a significant increase over the 160 reported last year for the same period. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) estimates that Thailand has 10 million stray dogs, with 1 in 10 dogs in Bangkok suspected to be infected with rabies.

 

https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/health-blog/mar-2018/rabies

 

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

Thailand is 60 years behind civilised countries in this respect. Not a week goes by without a story of accidents caused by strays; humans disfigured by bites;

Try reading the UK papers. Not a week goes by without there being a story of humans disfigured by strays.

So I guess that the UK is not civilised. (I do not disagree with that statement.)

 

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

The solution is obvious to anyone with an IQ of over 80 - a cull of all strays.

Not going to happen in a Buddhist country sunshine. Try again.

[NatureFilm]

 

The only solution is 100% vaccination  AND  the 100 % sterilisation of female dogs, except those whose owners have a strictly supervised breeding licence

[NatureFilm]

2 minutes ago, NatureFilm said:

 

The only solution is 100% vaccination  AND  the 100 % sterilisation of female dogs, except those whose owners have a strictly supervised breeding licence

You don't solve the street dog problem by killing the dogs. People are irresponsible and when dogs becomes inconvenient, they just let them go.

[sambum]

3 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Though this plan is a step in the right direction, however the flaw within it, is the fact that when bitten, you don't know if the dog has been vaccinated, or not. So, you must get treated at a hospital, anyway. And the cost of treatment is up to 20,000 baht for a series of rabies shots. And that assumes it was a light bite and no other injuries occurred. As opposed to a small child being maimed for life. Many of these soi dogs are insane and true desperado. So, we should prioritize the lives of mangy, miserable soi dogs over the well being of the human population?

 

The real solution is massive, nationwide culling. These are mangy creatures, leading desperate lives. Show some nerve and compassion and take them out of the misery. Clean up the streets! 

Couldn't agree more! The trouble is the Buddhist culture, and the taking of life.

 

I have heard of a few cases where people have had pets that are old and terminally ill, but the vets refuse to "put them to sleep". Maybe its the Buddhist culture, or possibly/probably because the owners were farangs, and therein lies  the opportunity for making a few more thousand baht! 

 

And how many times have you heard "not my dog!" when a dog is a nuisance, but if you hit it accidentally with your car/motor bike, suddenly this dog is an ex Crufts Best of Breed Champion? 

 

Regarding the proposal, this is indeed a step in the right direction, but why has it not been proposed before? How long has rabies been a problem in this (the) country?

And why does the Government not pay for the full cost of protecting its citizens from this dreadful disease? :- 

"with the help of sub-district volunteers." 

 

Possibly because the main areas of concern are north and East of Bangkok? Where the only time people seem to matter is at voting time? 

 

 

[sambum]

10 minutes ago, NatureFilm said:

 

The only solution is 100% vaccination  AND  the 100 % sterilisation of female dogs, except those whose owners have a strictly supervised breeding licence

And thereby make the cost of obtaining a dog only available to the rich, because you can bet your bottom baht that the licences will become another "cash cow" for the Government.

I like it!!!